Our climate is in a constant state of change. Global changes happen more slowly and tack more momentum or energy than do local changes. I’m sure that most of us have experienced local temperature changes. A hot muggy summer night in the city changes to a cooler night in the country. Why? Because all of the things we built absorb and hold heat better than the natural environment. There are many natural events that can change our environment quicker and more significantly than we can. Is the earth’s climate changing? Certainly! In the Earth’s past it has been much hotter and much colder than it is now, and we had nothing to do with it. Who knows what will happen when Apophis flies by the Earth in 2029 and comes back past in 2036? We may see a lot of climate change.

This is the opening chapters of Jurassic Park as written by Michael Crichton; I think it is a very interesting commentary.

“You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity! Let me tell you about our planet. Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. There's been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, on the land. Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions on millions of years, great dynasties of creatures rising, flourishing, dying away -- all this against a background of continuous and violent upheaval. Mountain ranges thrust up, eroded away, cometary impacts, volcano eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving, an endless, constant, violent change, colliding, buckling to make mountains over millions of years. Earth has survived everything in its time.

It will certainly survive us. If all the nuclear weapons in the world went off at once and all the plants, all the animals died and the earth was sizzling hot for a hundred thousand years, life would survive, somewhere: under the soil, frozen in arctic ice. Sooner or later, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would spread again. The evolutionary process would begin again. Might take a few billion years for life to regain its present variety. Of course, it would be very different from what it is now, but the earth would survive our folly, only we would not. If the ozone layer gets thinner, ultraviolet radiation sears earth, so what? Ultraviolet radiation is good for life. It's powerful energy. It promotes mutation, change. Many forms of life will thrive with more UV radiation. Many others will die out. You think this is the first time that's happened? Think about oxygen. Necessary for life now, but oxygen is actually a metabolic poison, a corrosive glass, like fluorine.

When oxygen was first produced as a waste product by certain plant cells some three billion years ago, it created a crisis for all other life on earth. Those plants were polluting the environment, exhaling a lethal gas. Earth eventually had an atmosphere incompatible with life. Nevertheless, life on earth took care of itself. In the thinking of the human being a hundred years is a long time. Hundred years ago we didn't have cars, airplanes, computers or vaccines. It was a whole different world, but to the earth, a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can't imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven't got the humility to try. We've been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we're gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us.”

Thats not the issue..the issue is will we survive? And frankly, you seem to not care if we do or don't...That to me is a problem.

Tom, knowing how adaptable humans are, do you honestly think that is the issue? I don't. That is just typical scare tactics from one extreme, and frankly it is as insulting as when someone says global warming isn’t happening. Maybe even more insulting. The real "issue" is not "will we survive" global warming. We will, and so will the planet. The "issue" is humans fear change or things that inconvenience them. Changes will occur, it is inevitable (which is also a general consensus among scientists). The best we can do is slow it down.

One of the problems I have with most of the "sky is falling" statements out there is they are based on studies that don't take into account the fact that Humans are one of the most adaptable creatures ever to inhabit this earth (Right up there with cockroaches and rats). These "scientists" and politicians must think of us as having the intelligence of frogs. Someone once said that if you throw a frog in hot water, it will jump out, but if you put him in cold water and turn the heat on, it will cook. Well, that might be true with frogs, but it isn't with humans (or at least most humans). Al Gore talks about the millions of deaths from sea levels rising. Not going to happen! Oh, the sea levels will probably rise, but it won't be in a matter of seconds (faster than we can run), it will be more like decades. I don't know about you, but if my feet are starting to get wet, I move uphill. If someone is too stupid to figure that out, well, chalk it up to natural selection. And another thing. Al Gore was talking about sea levels rising by as much as 12 feet by 2100. the latest estimate (general consensus among the experts) is it that worst case it will be 23 inches. which is still a lot, but we won't need water wings on our walk uphill over the next 100 years.

I haven't seen Gore's movie yet, but I probably will. I don’t like the way he exaggerates (he has a history of it), but I'm sure there are good things about it. I plan to keep an open mind and not follow the piper. Even some environmentalists have problems with some of his "facts", but follow that with a good point. It raises awareness (which was his goal

Giving creedence to peer reviews is ok. But remember, they are "peer reviews". Most of the people reviewing this subject accept that man made global warming is the truth. One thing I am certain of is this-if the earth is on a long term warming trend(2 degrees in the last century, 1 degree before 1950 and 1 degree after) no one knows why. The logical answer would be it is part of long term climate trends, especially as it is pretty certain that it has happened before-many times. But 2 degrees in 100 years is not long term. And since all of the glaciers in the world are not monitored, as a matter of fact, very few are-nobody knows if they are all melting. And one hundred years is not a long term trend as far as this planet goes.

Here is what I have noticed in the last few years in this debate:

If you don't accept the Gore camp's mantra, you are villified and basically hinted to be stupid and ignorant.

Somebody is paying all of these "climatologists"(anybody ever hear that word 20 years ago?). That's right, YOU ARE. And it is a pretty good business right now.

The big money will start to roll in the coming lawsuits. You don't think that this debate is all about posterity, do you?

"Scientists are telling us....."-do you really think that this profession(whatever a scientist really is) has more integrity than any other?

Politics and money, money and politics. That is what this debate is about today.

Maybe the earth is warming and we'll all cook like fried eggs. Twenty years ago the debate was split between those that thought another ice age was coming and those that thought the earth was warming.

I don't like pollution. I don't like the fact that we are burning oil and coal for energy. But all is not lost, when the price of gas hits 5 or 10 dollars per gallon you will see the spurring of development in new technologies that will produce energy in different ways. But I don't believe for one minute all of the drivel being put forth on this subject today. I guess after 48 years of watching various claims by various groups, 99.9% of which turn out to be utter nonsense, I am a little jaded and have moved to Missouri. So when you can really Show Me........I'll be watching. Until then, I will do my best to be a good steward of the planet, but I won't be caught up in the latest political hack job.